The Phase 0 OQ ledger (OQ-TN-01..10) promoted into
docs/architecture/open-questions.md (now OQ-TN-01..14, with four
new Phase 1 residues). Six ADRs and four spec docs, all Draft, all
decision-shaped per the SDD process (ADRs carry the WHY; specs carry
the WHAT and reference by number):
ADRs:
- 001 open-params-layout: params = {resource, substrate} — the
producer's stable name, not an address; wire-stable from the first
consumer; unknown substrates fail loudly at schema time
- 002 alpn-strategy: single alk/tunnel ALPN (option A); substrate in
params selects the framing; prior art (SSH/SOCKS5/udpgw) gives no
reason for the split
- 003 codec-and-udp-framing: raw pass-through (stream) / mandatory
[len: u16 BE] (UDP) — F-2 mandate recorded (the codec is mandatory
for correctness, not cosmetics); len=0 = legal empty datagram;
OQ-TN-13 resolved fail-loud (truncation)
- 004 no-backend-trait: halves functions at the assembly layer;
listen is an establisher shape; hub re-produce deferred(OQ-TN-12);
trait re-evaluated at the alknet ADR-078 convergence threshold
- 005 consumer-session-owns-teardown: TunnelSession with
open/adopt/stream_halves/take_halves/pump_against/close/join/Drop —
the W3 adopter gap closes structurally; Drop is the best-effort
fallback
- 006 access-control-posture: the open gate is the boundary;
TUNNEL_OPEN_SCOPE = tunnel:open (stable once published); op-level
ACL; ownership seam; no allowlists in v1; identity = 0.7.0's
precedence chain
Spec docs:
- overview.md: purpose, resource model, deps (alkcall 0.7.0,
wasm-clean default, local feature), module map
- wire.md: the open op (params/reply/typed errors), the data plane
by substrate, sentinels + half-close, byte diagrams
- producer.md: spec, establisher (dial + listen shapes), pump
handler (pump_bidi inline, R-02), registration API, ACL posture
- consumer.md: TunnelSession (forward open + reverse adopt
construction), data plane, teardown API (close/join/Drop incl.
pump-less join semantics)
- bast.md: the BAST doc for the UDP codec (convention 12's trigger
fired — the framing IS binary beyond pass-through)
- open-questions.md: OQ-TN-01..14; 01..10 promoted (faithful to the
phase-0 ledger's final states), 11 partially resolved (collision
domain = per-producer registry per ADR-001; lifecycle open),
12 deferred(scope), 13 resolved fail-loud (ADR-003), 14 open
Verified by an architecture-reviewer pass (2 criticals, 6 majors,
10 minors — all fixed: ADR-001/003-vs-OQ decision-state contradictions
resolved; the Layer-2 mislabel corrected to the ADR-047 §4 per-session
fork; alktty/alknet ADR misattributions fixed; codec placement pinned
to the establisher (pump stays substrate-agnostic); reverse-path
construction named (TunnelSession::adopt + pump_against); security
posture promoted to ADR-006; BAST doc written; F-2 rationale deduped;
README tables completed; channel_id > 0; MTU wording fixed; ADR-047 §5
attributions corrected; impacts lines added to unresolved OQs; review/
ledger pointer paths added to README references).
Verification: doc set internal cross-refs all resolve; cargo test,
fmt --check, doc --no-deps clean
115 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
115 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
# ADR-004: No TunnelBackend Trait — Halves Functions at the Assembly Layer
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## Status
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Accepted (2026-09-07; resolves the OQ-TN-05 executable input + the hub
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re-produce thread)
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## Context
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alktty has a `TtyBackend` trait because backends (local PTY, docker,
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SSH) produce complex handles — `TtyHandle` carries
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stdin/stdout/stderr/exit-code quadruple + control — and the adapter
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pumps them. The Phase 0 question (OQ-TN-05): does alktunnels need a
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`TunnelBackend` trait, or is the two-pump handler + feature-gated
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substrate modules the whole story?
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The tunnel producer's substrate action is much narrower than a TTY
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backend's:
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- **Dial flows:** dial a target, get an `AsyncRead + AsyncWrite`
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stream (or a datagram endpoint). A tunnel "handle" is just boxed
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halves.
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- **Listen flows:** accept on a listener; per accept, the accepted
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connection is the same boxed-halves shape.
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The UDP POC gave the executable answer for dial flows (2026-09-06):
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`pump_halves` is generic over boxed `(AsyncRead, AsyncWrite)` halves —
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TCP contributes `into_split()` halves, UDP contributes the `UdpHalf`
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socket adapter, the pump never knows which. "Produce boxed halves for
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a resource" is a function, not a trait.
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The one remaining thread was the hub re-produce composition (does a
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hub proxy that re-produces a consumed resource need a trait or a
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composition helper?). The reverse POC (2026-09-07) resolved the
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mechanics: a hub proxy is a consumer + producer composed at the
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assembly layer — the reverse POC's hub is exactly this shape (it
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consumes a channels connection and produces reverse-tunnel opens
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toward the worker); re-exporting (registering an openable for a
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resource the hub itself consumes) would add a
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`register_openable_with_establisher` whose establisher opens a
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consumer channel. Both halves are public-surface operations; no new
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mechanism is visible yet. Deferring the helper until a concrete
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re-produce consumer exists is the alknet ADR-078-style "genuine
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deferral" pattern
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pattern (OQ-TN-12).
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## Decision
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**No `TunnelBackend` trait in v1.** The inversion point is the
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assembly layer:
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- **The produce function.** The producer's establisher resolves
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`(resource, substrate)` → boxed halves
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(`Box<dyn AsyncRead + Send + Sync + Unpin>` ×2 — the `+ Sync` is
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the `ChannelPlan` bound, reverse POC F-1) or a framed UDP adapter.
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The dial itself is substrate code living in feature-gated backend
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modules (`local` feature: real sockets), injected at assembly:
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the establisher closure the assembly layer constructs closes over
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the substrate dial function. The protocol crate never sees a
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socket type.
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- **The listen variant** is an establisher shape, not a trait: a
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producer that LISTENS (SSH `-R` far-side listener, or the hub's own
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exposed port being produced to a third party) registers the same
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open op; its establisher pops the next accepted connection from an
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assembly-owned listener queue and returns it as the plan payload.
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The listener lifecycle (bind, accept loop, cancel) is assembly
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code — the protocol never binds (OQ-TN-04). The reverse POC's
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worker (dial) and the forward POC's producer (dial) both rode this
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shape; the listen establisher is the same plan-flow with a
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different halves source.
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- **The pump handler is substrate-agnostic by construction:**
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`pump_bidi(bidi, t_read, t_write)` over the downcast plan payload —
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it cannot know whether the halves came from TCP, UDP, a unix
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socket, or an in-process pipe, and must not.
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- **Datagram substrates** contribute a framed adapter (ADR-003)
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instead of raw halves; the pump shape is unchanged.
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- **Re-evaluation trigger:** if a consumer crate demonstrates that
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every assembly layer re-implements the same glue (registry + dial +
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establisher construction + pump wiring) three or more times, extract
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a `TunnelBackend`-shaped trait THEN (the alknet ADR-078
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convergence-test threshold — extract when the shapes have converged
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across consumers, not before)
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— as an additive layer, not a v1 wire/ABI commitment. Until then
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the function-plus-closure shape keeps the crate dependency-light
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and wasm-clean.
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## Consequences
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- **The default crate stays wasm-clean** with no socket/platform
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deps; `local` (sockets) and future backends (docker, process) are
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feature-gated modules implementing dial/listen functions.
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- **Assembly layers write more glue than a trait would save** — the
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accepted cost, validated twice (both POCs' producers are ~200 lines
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including the UDP adapter).
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- **Plan payloads are `Send + Sync`** (reverse POC F-1, documented on
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alkcall's `ChannelPlan` type in 0.7.0): socket-backed handles carry
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`+ Sync` naturally; non-Sync handles (process pipes as boxed trait
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objects) need a wrapper. The spec documents the constraint.
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- **The listen variant needs no new wire surface** — same open op,
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same params, same typed errors (an empty listener queue during
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establishment is `resource_shortage`; a closed listener is
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`dial_failed`-class).
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## References
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- OQ-TN-05 (promoted), OQ-TN-12 (hub re-produce, deferred), OQ-TN-14
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(unix/stdio placement)
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- Forward POC: `docs/research/poc-summary.md` §5 (halves-not-trait);
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reverse POC: `docs/research/reverse-poc-summary.md` (the hub shape,
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F-1)
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- alktty ADR-002 (`TtyBackend` — the contrast case: when a trait IS
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warranted), alktty ADR-003 (backend placement — the feature-gate
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pattern)
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- AGENTS.md conventions 4/7/14 (wasm-clean, substrate-agnostic,
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feature flags) |